MasterCard Applause is the entertainments benefit programme offered by MasterCard in Australia.

MasterCard Applause was developed by MasterCard as a way to get new card holders.  It offers a number of ways of getting privileged levels of access to concerts and matches.

The MasterCard Applause programme is open to all MasterCard holders whichever bank they get the MasterCard through.  It is available to holders of all type of MasterCard cards, including debit cards, prepaid cards and credit cards.

Although it is open to all types of card holders, they do need to first register on to the MasterCard Applause site.  It is only open to residents of Australia and New Zealand.

The Events Waitlist is a service that allows a card holder to book online for events that may be available in the future from a given performer.  When this performer announces that they are going to be performing in Australia then the Cardholder will be notified ahead  of time about the event and given the opportunity to get a ticket once the bookings open.

The Events Waitlist is not in itself a booking, but only a chance to be told ahead of time.  It is also the case that being on the events waitlist and booking may not guarantee the chance of getting a ticket, although it may increase it.  The Events Waitlist also needs to be re-registered every twelve months.

Advance Access is a scheme which allows users to book seats before the tickets go on general release.  There is also a last minute service which sells discount seats which may be left over or cancelled.

MasterCard Applause is a free service.  It does not actually cost MasterCard a lot of money to provide the entertainment benefits as the show promoters get free advertising for their events.  All payment has to be through the registered MasterCard debit card and there is no credit given by the promoters.

MasterCard Applause does run a strict returns and cancellations policy and will not cover for any loss, meaning that the consumer has to rely on the event organiser’s guarantee.

Although MasterCard runs similar schemes in other countries, these are separate from the MasterCard Applause scheme in Australia.  The card holder will need to be resident in another country (being in a hotel in that country does not usually count) before they are able to take advantage of that country’s programme.  MasterCard is accepted with 28 million vendors in all parts of the world.